Spherical shell laser sail would simplify interstellar laser sails by getting rid of the need for orientation and solve the beam riding problem
The stability of a light sail riding on a laser beam is analyzed both analytically and numerically. Conical sails on Gaussian beams, which have been studied in the past, are shown to be unstable in general. A new architecture for a passively stable sail and beam configuration is proposed. The novel spherical shell sail design …